Storms have left us feeling anything but goofy

We here at Goofy about Disney haven’t been feeling very goofy these days.

The
affects of the catastrophic weather phenomenon known as Hurricane
Sandy, which blasted the East Coast two weeks ago, are still being felt
by millions of people.

In truth, very few will ever forget a storm that will rightly be described as an event of biblical proportions.

Scores
of innocent people died, some of them young children; houses, cars and
other vital belongings were destroyed; homes were — and in many cases,
still are — without electricity; gasoline became harder and harder to
find as people turned to generators as a power source; school systems
were shut down; beloved amusement icons along the Jersey Shore were
obliterated; Halloween was canceled in many parts of the area.

On
a personal level, working for a newspaper tasked with covering every
angle of this major news story has been both rewarding and exhausting.
Staten Island received a crippling blow, yet some how, some way, the
borough’s residents will find a way to overcome the tragedy.

My
colleagues at the Staten Island Advance and at silive.com have done a
remarkable job under extreme conditions to bring our readers the human
element of the ever-evolving story.

Our home in Freehold, N.J.,
received minor damage from the hurricane. But by far the most stressful
aspect of the storm was dealing with no power for seven days ... never
quite realizing that turning on powerless light switches was futile.

Then,
just three days after power was restored, we found out that we live in
the snow belt of New Jersey — 13 inches fell on us last Wednesday — and
we lost power for another three days, courtesy of a staggering amount of
fallen tree branches.

So, if you’re wondering why Goofy about Disney entries have been a little sparse over the last two weeks, now you know.

We’ll get back into the swing of things as soon as time permits and our enthusiasm returns.

P.S. — I’ve included some recent photos of the grandkids, who always brighten our day no matter how tough things are going.